THE FARM COMMUNITY 



629 



that they are able to do things in new- 

 ways and to work togther. I hope that 

 this great region also will apply at the 

 outset all the resources of business and 

 science to develop an agriculture that 

 will propagate itself. 



When all the lands are taken that can 

 be developed or reclaimed by private 

 resources, there remain vast areas that 

 require the larger powers, and perhaps 

 even the funds, of society (or the Gov- 

 ernment) to bring into utilization. 



One class of lands can be utilized by 

 means of irrigation. This form of land- 

 reclamation is much in the public mind, 

 and great progress has been made in it. 

 There remain, however, other lands to 

 be reclaimed by other means. There 

 is much more land to be reclaimed by 

 the removal of water than by the addi- 

 tion of water. There are many more 

 acres to be adapted to productive uses 

 by forest planting and conservation than 

 by irrigation. There are vastly larger 

 areas waiting reclamation by the so- 

 called "dry farming" (that is, by farm- 

 ing completely adapted to dry regions). 

 And all the land in all the states must 

 be reclaimed by better farming. I am 

 making these statements in no dispar- 

 agement of irrigation, but in order to 

 indicate the relation of irrigation to 

 what should be a recognized national 

 reclamation movement. 



But even though we should recognize 

 a national reclamation movement to in- 

 clude all these phases and others, it may 

 not be necessary or advisable, in the in- 

 terest of all the people, that every last 

 acre in the national domain be opened 

 for exploitation or settlement in this 

 decade or even this century. The Na- 

 tion may well have untouched reserves. 

 No one knows what our necessities will 

 be a hundred years hence. Land that 

 has never been despoiled will be im- 

 measurably more valuable to society 

 then than now ; and society holds the 

 larger interest. 



When the pressure of population 

 comes, we shall fall back on our re- 

 serves. The rain-belt states will fall 

 back on their wet lands, their uplands, 

 and their hills. These hills are much 

 more usable than those of the arid and 



semi-arid West can ever be. The 

 eastern states have immense reserves. 

 New York is still nearly half in woods 

 and swamps and waste, but practically 

 all of it is usable. The same is true of 

 New England and Pennsylvania and 

 great regions southward. Forests and 

 sward grow profusely to the summits 

 of the mountains and the hills. Vast 

 areas eastward are undeveloped and 

 unexploited. Even the regions of the 

 so-called "abandoned farms" are yet 

 practically untouched of their potential 

 wealth. I have no regret that these 

 countries are still unsettled. There is 

 no need of haste. When the great 

 West has brought every one of its 

 available acres into irrigation and when 

 population increases, the eastern quar- 

 ter of the country will take up the 

 slack. It is by no means inconceivable 

 that at that time the eastern lands, new- 

 ly awakened from the sleep of a cen- 

 tury, will be the fresh lands, and the 

 older regions will again become the 

 new . regions. 



Now let me say further that irriga- 

 tion is properly not a practise of arid 

 countries alone. Irrigation is of 

 two purposes — to reclaim land and 

 make it usable ; to mitigate the 

 drought in rainfall regions. As yet the 

 popular imagination runs only to recla- 

 mation irrigation. This form of irri- 

 gation is properly regulated by the 

 Federal Government. Now and then 

 a forehanded farmer in the humid 

 region, growing high-class crops, in- 

 stalls an irrigation plant to carry him 

 through the dry spells. As our agri- 

 ctilture becomes more developed, we 

 shall greatly extend this practise. We 

 shall find that even in humid countries 

 we cannot afiford to lose the rainfall 

 from hills and in floods, and we shall 

 hold at least some of it against the 

 time of drought as well as for cities and 

 for power. We have not yet learned 

 how to irrigate in humid regions, for 

 the practise of drainage is equally in- 

 volved; but we certainly shall apply 

 water as well as manures to supple- 

 ment the usual agriculture practise. 

 Now. inasmuch as irrigation-recla- 



